<p>I know about 15 people, personally, who got into ivies. They were all rich. For the last 5 years at my school, anyone at my school that needs a lot of financial aid never gets it. We send about 5 to ivies each year(do thats 25 kids got in). Rich kids with the seemingly identical stats(except for essays/recs) as the less rich ones always get in while the others get rejected. For clarification, when i say rich i mean they do not apply for financial aid or only get very little. Is this just a coincidence? ;D</p>
<p>I know they claim to look for socio-economic diversity and I understand that some poor kids get in. But, do the rich kids have an advantage?</p>
<p>Yes, rich kids have an advantage.</p>
<p>Richer kids typically receive a better education as they grow up. They can afford tutors if something doesn’t make sense. They receive better nutrition, which fuels brain power. Their parents typically have enough money that they don’t necessarily need a job and can participate in many ECs. Richer parents on average tend to also be more supportive of their children and their goals, though there are many, many exceptions everywhere. At some schools that aren’t need blind, they’re given a huge advantage.</p>
<p>So yes.</p>
<p>Of course rich people have an advantage. That’s a fact of life. They have an advantage in everything. But when it comes to taxing them fairly, everyone cries.
And this is coming from a “rich kid”.
The people who get hurt the most in college admissions are the ones in the 50k-300k bracket.</p>
<p>Part of the reason could be that some might have had private counselors, were encouraged to devote more time to academics when lower income families placed on it less emphasis, had more guidance on how to present themselves on paper, or had access to more internships or extracurricular opportunities through family connections. </p>
<p>You already had an advantage over your peers by finding out about CC and its resources, which I think are as good as a private guidance counselor/SAT tutor if you spend the time to dig under all the false information for the essence. Life isn’t always fair, but you can make up for it by going the extra mile :).</p>
<p>How do you think those schools got to be THE IVIES? By being enormously wealthy, much of that wealth coming from its rich alums. So of course students who come from wealthy families have an advantage: they’re much more likely to donate, say, a building, than you and I.</p>
<p>This is interesting–perhaps what you see reflects your area? It seems as if there are more wealthy, -driven- people at your school than at mine. I point out the drive factor because, although my school is riddled with high-level executives’ children (although I’m in the middle of no where, there are a few Fortune 500 headquarters in the area), very few of them have any desire to attend the Ivies.</p>
<p>Actually, all the people I know who go to top 10 schools (correction: all the people I knew before my sister started attending Penn) are from fairly middle class (or poorer) families–i.e. they received at least half tuition. Some even received full tuition and room/board. </p>
<p>In terms of receiving an advantage…well, rich people certainly win out there. But I don’t think they have any advantage that a truly ambitious poorer student couldn’t match or overcome. So don’t worry about it. 
You can’t change your family’s socioeconomic situation right now. Just stay focused on your goals.</p>
<p>This is actually really true and applies to my area as well. Most kids at my school who got in were MEGA rich.</p>
<p>This has been very well-studied and is a big issue in education. One study a few years ago found that 74% of the students at the top 146 colleges are from the top economic quartile, whereas only 3% came from the bottom economic quartile. At the vast majority of colleges, rich people do enjoy an advantage because of their income: the colleges are not need-blind and can’t afford to accept lots of students who can’t pay.</p>
<p>But even at the need-blind colleges, wealthy students enjoy a significant advantage, but not because of their income in and of itself. Rather, they tend to be the most prepared: consider that they grew up in a very stimulating environment, likely under college-educated parents who were able to give them every opportunity to nurture their mind and grow their talents, starting from things like ballet or piano or a telescope or a science kit from an early age. They are typically pushed harder to succeed. When they struggle, they can get a tutor. When they have to take the SAT or AP exams, they can afford prep classes or at the very least prep books. During high school, they typically don’t have to worry about having a job, and are usually given / have access to a car (transportation for extracurricular activities is important). Their parents can pay for various intellectual enrichment programs, from academic camps to summer schools to leadership conferences. They more frequently attend private schools, which have the most stimulating curricula, teachers, and support staff like a dedicated college counselor. They’re typically set on going to college very early on, and when they apply (or sometimes long before), they often can pay for help: essay help services, or an expensive college consultant, etc. This is why wealthy students are overrepresented in the applicant pools, in the admit pools, and in the student bodies.</p>
<p>This is also why legacy students are overrepresented in all three. Take all of the above and combine it with the fact that they likely wanted to attend their parents’ alma mater from a young age, or at the very least their parents pushed them to apply/attend, and you can see why they’re overrepresented. (At the elite colleges, this is made worse by the fact that the parents are likely extremely intelligent, successful, and wealthy, so all of the above is even more true for legacy students.) If you were to blind admissions officers to the legacy status of applicants at elite colleges, you would invariably find that their acceptance rates and representation would not change much if at all. They’re simply among the most qualified and also tend to show the most interest in attending that college.</p>